Effects of a Supportive Climate on Chinese College Students’ Reading Engagement and EFL Classroom Achievement: A Multiple Mediator Model

Abstract

Viewing college students’ reading engagement as a three-dimensional construct, this study explores the mediating roles of students’ behavioral, emotional, and cognitive reading engagement in the relation between students’ perceptions of supportive climate and their reading achievement in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. A quantitative approach was employed, and primary data were obtained via the distribution of online questionnaires among a sample of Chinese college students. Analyses included Pearson correlations with Holm correction, followed by a multiple mediator model tested via ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, with 5000-iteration Bootstrap resampling to verify mediation effects. The findings revealed that the positive relationship between students’ perceived supportive climate and EFL reading achievement is fully mediated by cognitive engagement, whereas behavioral and emotional engagement have no significant mediating effect. Specifically, perceived supportive climate was positively associated with all three dimensions of reading engagement. However, only cognitive engagement was significantly positively associated with reading achievement. The total effect of perceived classroom climate on reading achievement was significant, whereas its direct effect, as well as its indirect effects through behavioral and emotional engagement, were not statistically significant. The findings are significant in that they provide practical implications for EFL reading instruction and highlight the vital role that cognitive engagement rather than behavioral or emotional engagement plays in students’ reading achievement.